Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA Soccer, and Silent Hill are the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Most Recent: Xbox One
Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remake wins “Best of Show” at E3 2018 from Game Critics Awards
The “media and influencer outlets” represented by the Game Critics Awards have selected this year’s Best of E3 winners. Capcom crawled away with “Best of Show” thanks to the Resident Evil 2 remake.
Meanwhile, Media Molecule’s Dreams won “Best Original Game,” while fellow Sony stablemate Marvel’s Spider-Man won “Best Console Game” and “Best Action/Adventure Game.” The Game Critics Awards honored a rather diverse slate of games this year, giving “Best PC Game” to BioWare’s Anthem, “Best AR/VR Game” to Tetris Effect, and “Best RPG” to Kingdom Hearts III.
Unsurprisingly, the massively-popular Super Smash Bros. Ultimate took home “Best Fighting Game.”
Among non-playable games, a “Special Commendation for Graphics” was awarded to CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II, and Sucker Punch’s Ghost of Tsushima. The Last of Us Part II also received a “Special Commendation for Sound” and Cyberpunk 2077 also collected a “Special Commendation for Innovation.”
The full list of winners can be found after the break. (more…)
New Retail Releases: Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered Edition, Jurassic World: Evolution
A classic episode of The Simpsons once encouraged 4th of July revelers to celebrate the independence of our nation by blowing up a small part of it. That sentiment is very much on display in a pair of games that are coming to retail shelves this week.
First up, THQ Nordic will head back to Mars in Red Faction: Guerrilla – Re-Mars-tered Edition, a PS4 and Xbox One re-release of the explosive action game from 2009:
Set 50 years after the climactic events of the original Red Faction, Red Faction: Guerrilla allows players to take the role of an insurgent Fighter with the newly re-established Red Faction movement as they battle for liberation from the oppressive Earth Defense Force. Red Faction: Guerrilla still defines the limits of destruction-based gameplay with a huge open-world, fast-paced guerrilla-style combat, and true physics-based destruction.
Also available this week is the retail launch of Jurassic World: Evolution for the PS4 and Xbox One. Life may… uh… find a way, but rampaging dinos are always good for a few fireworks:
Place yourself at the heart of the Jurassic franchise and build your own Jurassic World. Take charge of operations on the legendary islands of the Muertes archipelago and bring the wonder, majesty and danger of dinosaurs to life. Build for Science, Entertainment, or Security interests in an uncertain world where life always finds a way. Control the big picture with deep management tools or go hands-on to confront challenges on the ground or in the air. Expand your islands and choose your own journey in an all-new narrative featuring iconic characters from across the franchise and decades of Jurassic lore at your fingertips.
That’s all for now, but we’ll be back later this week with a look at all the new additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Jurassic World: Evolution, Red Faction: Guerrilla
Overwatch’s 28th Hero is Hammond the Wrecking Ball… a genetically-enhanced hamster in an armor-plated hamster ball
Blizzard unveiled the 28th Hero coming to Overwatch earlier today and there are pretty much no adequate words to describe him. But I’m gonna try.
The game’s 28th Hero is Hammond, a genetically-enhanced hamster who goes by the nickname “Wrecking Ball.” With his vast intellect, Hammond has built an armor-plated hamster ball complete with four assault cannons, a grappling hook, proximity mines, and a temporary shield. Needless to say, the character is definitely classified as a Tank within the world of Overwatch.
Hammond is currently available in Overwatch’s Public Test Region, and he’ll roll out to all platforms at a later date. In the meantime, you can view his origin story in the trailer embedded above, and you can learn more about his abilities at the game’s official website:
Quad Cannons: Automatic assault weapons.
Roll: Transform into a ball and increase maximum movement speed.
Grappling Claw: Launch a grappling claw to rapidly swing around the area. Enables high speed collisions to damage and knockback enemies.
Minefield: Deploy a massive field of proximity mines.
Adaptive Shield: Create temporary personal shields. Amount increases with more enemies nearby.
Piledriver: Slam into the ground below to damage and launch enemies upward.
You can also hear Game Director Jeff Kaplan talk more about the little guy in the latest Developer Update video. It’s been embedded after the break. (more…)
Anthem nabs five nominations in Game Critics Awards’s Best of E3 2018 roundup
Every year, the Game Critics Awards, a consortium of more than 50 major publications that cover the video game industry, gets together to choose the best games at the E3 Expo. The nominees for “Best of E3 2018” were announced this morning, and BioWare’s Anthem lead the way with five nominations (including “Best of Show”).
From Software’s Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is also in the running for “Best of Show,” and it’s standing close behind Anthem with four total nominations. After that, a mob of games collided in third place with three nominations apiece (including Battlefield V, Dreams, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Resident Evil 2, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate). All but Battlefield V and Dreams are also up for “Best of Show.”
The PS4 was the most-honored platform with 58 nominations, followed by the PC (with 55), the Xbox One (with 51), and the Switch (with 10).
Several games that clicked with fans at home during the pre-E3 press conferences (including Cyberpunk 2077, Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, and many others) weren’t eligible for nomination because they weren’t available to play by the judging panel.
But most of those games will likely get another shot next year (especially since I expect to be old and gray before Death Stranding is released), and you can find all of this year’s nominees after the break. The winners will be announced this coming Monday, July 2. (more…)
Posted in Mobile, News, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One
Tagged Anthem, Battlefield V, Dreams, E3 2018, FIFA 19, Fortnite, Forza Horizon 4, Kingdom Hearts III, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Overcooked 2, Resident Evil 2, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Spider-Man, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tetris Effect, Total War: Three Kingdoms
Joel Embiid is your NBA Live 19 cover athlete
The Philadelphia 76ers were a bit of a laughingstock before Joel Embiid’s arrival in 2014. But things finally started to turn around this year as the team made the playoffs (and advanced to the second round after a win over the Miami Heat) and Embiid received his first All-Star Game selection.
And now, Embiid has been selected by EA Sports as the cover athlete for NBA Live 19.
“It’s great, it’s amazing. I’m thankful for this opportunity, especially as a basketball player,” Embiid said. “You work so hard because you have goals in life, you want to be in the Hall of Fame, but also, being on the cover of a video game is something I’ve always dreamed of and I’m happy to be in this position.”
NBA Live 19 is in development at EA Tiburon, and it’ll be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on September 7. A free demo of the game will be available to download on August 24.
Posted in News, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged NBA Live 19
New Retail Releases: The Crew 2, Crash Bandicoot Trilogy, Wolfenstein II, More
Ubisoft is racing for the horizon this week as The Crew 2 brings its cross-country race to the PS4 and Xbox One this week. This time around, the franchise’s vehicular options have expanded to include “exotic cars, bikes, planes, and boats,” and players will be able to travel where their heart takes them all across the United States.
But it’s possible that the open world racing game will be overshadowed by a big batch of re-releases this week, including the Switch and Xbox One debut for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. In addition to giving players the chance to relive Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped on modern platforms, the N. Sane Trilogy now includes two never-before-seen bonus levels (“Stormy Ascent” and “Future Tense”).
Three other games will also be making their Switch debut this week including Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Bethesda’s alternate history shooter sequel; Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana, the newest entry in Falcom’s long-running Action RPG series; and Brawlout, a Smash-like party fighter from Angry Mob Games.
And finally this week, Aksys Games will bring Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk, a “suspense-filled” visual novel about a mysterious young woman, to the Vita.
That’s all for now, but we’ll be back later this week with a look at all the new additions to the PlayStation Store, Xbox Games Store, and Nintendo eShop.
The first episode of Life Is Strange 2 will be released on September 27
Dontnod Entertainment quietly announced Life Is Strange 2 in May 2017… and then they proceeded to pour all their attention into Vampyr, which was released earlier this month. But with Vampyr now available on store shelves, Dontnod is ready to reveal (in a short teaser trailer) that Life Is Strange 2’s first episode will be released on September 27.
Even with a release date announcement, we still don’t know much of anything about Life Is Strange 2. Though that might change after Dontnod releases The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit next week. The “narrative experience demo” will be available as a free download for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and it’ll somehow link up with Life Is Strange 2.
As you might have guessed, Life Is Strange 2 is also currently in development for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Life Is Strange 2
NHL 19 skates onto the PS4 and Xbox One on September 14
EA Sports has announced that NHL 19 will be released for the PS4 and Xbox One on September 14. This year’s hockey sim will feature the Nashville Predators’s PK Subban on the cover, along with new modes of play (including outdoor rinks) and “Hero Teams” built with more than 200 Hockey Legends.
In addition to the Gameplay Trailer embedded above, EA Sports has offered up plenty of details on NHL 19’s new animation system, as well as Hero Teams, and the revamped Create-A-Character mode:
Powering the core of NHL 19 is cutting-edge gameplay technology, Real Player Motion (RPM) Tech, which redefines the way movement and animations are captured. RPM Tech enables explosive-edge skating, giving players more control, faster acceleration and more responsiveness as they move up and down the ice. RPM Tech combines with a new collision physics system that introduces more contextual body-checking, bringing bigger, badder, jaw-dropping hits that are dynamic based on speed, size and point of impact.
Fans can enjoy all that NHL 19 has to offer while also paying tribute to stars of the past with the addition of Legends, featuring over 200 of hockey’s greatest from all eras, including Wayne Gretzky. Players can compete as Hero Teams that combine squads of superstars from the past and present for an ultimate fantasy matchup. Play with the best of the best from all eras in both single-player and multiplayer modes.
The youthful expression of today’s hockey is also represented in NHL 19 where, for the first time, players can create a unique look with lifestyle gear and clothing, including hoodies, jackets, parkas, and knits frame hockey lifestyle brands and unique custom designs. New playstyle classes and player traits also let players customize the way they perform on the ice, allowing fans the freedom to create and compete as the players they’ve always wanted to be.
NHL 19 will also feature the return of 3-on-3 hockey in NHL Threes, but players will also get to compete in a 1v1v1 free-for-all with no rules and no stoppages in NHL Ones. A new practice mode (NHL Pro-Am) will also make its debut in the game.
Finally, as is customary with all of EA Sports’s games, players who pre-order NHL 19’s Legends Edition (featuring Wayne Gretzky) or Ultimate Edition will be able to begin playing three days early on September 11.